Horses Across the USA

Some people play the license plate game when traveling, trying to see a plate from every one of the fifty states. It's fun and a good way to pass the time during long drives. But I prefer a different game.

I play Horses Across the USA, a game I made up where I look for horsey items along the roads and highways we travel. I don't mean pastures full of horses and barns, I mean signage, vehicles, etc. I snap a photo and count it as we drive past.

The last ten days Craig and I traveled through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in order to visit our children. As you might imagine, I did very well at Horses Across the USA.

 The CHIN! While not outwardly horsey, how could I NOT snap a picture of BreyerFest's host hotel!

There are a surprising number of semi-trailers which have equine logos, like Black Horse Carriers, Inc.

I would love it if my home address included the word "horse." (Interesting combination with "stamp" and "church, though.")

Winnebago makes tiny trailers they call "Minnie Winnies." 

I really wanted to stop by Horsetown on our way home from Florida, but it was a sixteen and a half hour drive and we just didn't have the time.

Another semi - there are artists in our hobby who could come up with a MUCH better logo that that green Sc!!

 Pelham is probably not really named after the bit, but it is still a horsey reference. 

 Another place I wish we had time to stop and visit!

Not the best photo as it was getting dark and a truck blocked my view of the sign until the very last minute. Kentucky is my favorite state to visit or travel through.

Try playing Horses Across the USA the next time you are traveling. These are only a sample of what I saw - you'll be surprised at just how many equine references you find!

Horses Across the USA

For the past ten days, Craig and I have been traveling to visit our kids, and when we do, we always play our my favorite game, Horses Across the USA. This is a game I made up where I look for horsey items along the roads and highways we travel. I don't mean pastures full of horses and barns, I mean signage, vehicles, things that connect to model horses, etc. I snap a photo and count it as we drive past.

The first leg of our trip was from Indiana to Iowa City where Denver Daughter Sarah and her family had just moved. We weren't even out of Indiana before we'd snapped our first photo.

Trying to avoid the heavy traffic and construction around Chicago and I-80, we had cut through the rural Indiana countryside and came across this sign. And while this isn't quite what we look for in the game, we counted it anyway.

This horse crossing sign with a yellow caution light was way out in the country, too. We were off to a good start!

Our third find was what we truly look for in the game - if we were to assign points for sightings, this would've been a big winner. Can you tell why?

The connection to Annie Oakley! (Click on this link to see my own connection to Annie Oakley.)

While in Iowa, Sarah (that's her face in the mirror) drove us out into Amish country to the Stringtown grocery for cheese, bulk spices, and groceries. (And fudge. Oh, my, the fudge!!)

The highways had wide aprons on either side of them so that the Amish could safely drive their buggies and vehicles. 

Here's a close up of the vehicle you could see in the previous picture. 

This sign on the way to Stringtown also counted as a sighting in Horses Across the USA.

Black Diamond was a beautiful Saddlebred in the 1960s book, The Luck of Black Diamond.

I even named one of my models Black Diamond after reading the book. (This is one of my early carpet herd pieces.)

After several days with Denver Daughter in Iowa (I've got to think of a new name for her!) we hit the road again and headed out to Utah to visit Mountain Mama Jessica and her kids. We had not seen her family since before the pandemic began.

Another book reminder, and Like the first book, from my childhood, too.

Casey, the Utterly Impossible Horse by Anita Feagles. It was not a book I particularly liked when I was a kid, but I do still have my copy on my bookshelf. (Photo from Google Images.)

Throughout our trip, traffic on the interstates was heavy and we saw many, many travel trailers and RVs. This one made me think of Sultanna.

Nebraska is a very horsey state, and I loved the reminders of the old west.

Athough this exit sign took me right back to Kentucky, Kentucky Horse Park, and BreyerFest!

I was not surprised to see a reference to Buffalo Bill - his ranch was in Nebraska. Liz Cory has a family connection to him that she shared in one of her BreyerFest seminars.

Buffalo Bill's favorite horse was named after Liz's uncle. (Liz's maiden name is Isham.) And Breyer made a model of Isham in 2003.

There is a nice rest stop in Pine Bluffs Wyoming, just over the Nebraska border. 

I loved being welcomed to Wyoming with horsey restrooms!

A reference to Breyer's Mini Whinnies...

... and to Breyer's Premier club! All those travel trailers and RVs that shared the road with us gave us lots of horsey connections.

Estes Park is the name of  a huge equestrian events park in Estes, Colorado. 

Photo from estesparkeventscomplex.com and retrieved from Google Images.

This semi was hauling an oversized load that was stamped with rearing horses that reminded me of Breyer's Fighting Stallion.

Sharp-eyed Hagen Renaker collectors will catch the reference to a HR Thoroughbred foal!

Vanguard, a Thoroughbred foal made from 1961 - 1972. (Photo from Identify Your Hagen Renaker.)

Craig and I did pretty well playing our game during the two day drive from Iowa City to Santaquin, Utah where Jessica lives. And while I missed a few snaps that would've worked, I wasn't too worried.

After all, we still had the return trip home to get those.

Stay 'tooned!

Horses Across the USA - Playing with Craig

While traveling in October, I played my favorite road game, Horses Across the USA. (Click the game title to see the blog entry about it.) Well, Craig and I just got back from a week in Florida with our oldest son, Kyle, and his family, so naturally I was playing the game again as we drove the nearly 1,000 miles from home to Florida and then back again.

Only this time, Craig joined in. Which, as you might imagine, changed up the game a bit! Craig is not a horse lover (he is a Lynn lover), but he's had enough exposure to them over time that he did pretty well. But some of these had me laughing.

It started out innocently enough with him pointing out that I should include the word "western" since it was a style of riding.

Okay, that made sense. Although I soon discovered that the word "western" was everywhere as we drove south. I am not including all those pictures, but trust me, there are plenty I could post.

 "Corral" was a shoo-in.

 As were both "boot" and "barn."

 We saw a lot of reference to cowboys as well.

We almost missed this reference - we were passing the truck when I spied it!

This next was Craig's absolute favorite, and the horsey connection that made me laugh the most. "Shoney's! Shoney's!" he cried. "Quick! Get a picture!"

"That is absolutely not horsey," I replied. "I see no connection whatsoever. Why should we count that?" He turned and beamed a smile at me. "Shoney's ponies!" he said triumphantly.

What?? Well, the point of the game is to see things that make you think of horses, and while it is a huge stretch, Craig does think of ponies when he sees a Shoney's so I counted it. (After all, there is a Breyer dealer, Steff Bodamer, whose company is called Bodei's Ponies, so why not Shoney's Ponies?)

 This trailer made me think of fox hunting. (And for some reason, ketchup, too!)

The wall decor inside a Hardees in Tennessee. This came as a total surprise to us - glad we didn't go through the drive through like we usually do!

Another sign that came up fast. We are still trying to figure out what the angled line is behind the horse. A grapevine? Is the horse supposed to be jumping the creek?

 Don't miss Jennifer Buxton's blog post that relates to this!

I say this every time we drive through Georgia - some day we are going to stop in and check out Horse Town!

 A more obscure horse reference.

 I have done this many times in my riding career!

Another stretch from Craig. "Luckey" aka "lucky" made him think of a horseshoe. We argued about whether or not it should be included, but when I actually spied a second horsey reference in the picture (look above the truck), I just had to go with it!

Playing Horses Across the USA with Craig was a lot of fun and helped pass the time during our sixteen hour drive from St. Augustine, Florida to our home in Indiana. But there's more...

I have saved some of the best and will post them tomorrow in a game form. I'll even provide an answer key for self grading. (I am a teacher, after all!) 

It will be fun to see what other people think when they see those pictures. 

Another Round of Horses Across the USA

While traveling home from BreyerFest and Tennessee, naturally I played my favorite car game, Horses Across the USA, to pass the time. The problem, though, was that since we travel the I-65 corridor through Kentucky and Tennessee fairly often, I saw the same horsey landmarks that I always see (for example, the Churchill Downs sign in Louisville.)

This time I wanted to see if I could find new horsey things as we traveled.

When I started clicking photos of this trailer, Craig was a bit puzzled. I explained to him that the initials PAM stood for Proud Arabian Mare to Breyer collectors.

This street sign honoring Man O' War was seen as we traveled through a new-to-us section of Lexington.

 As was this one.

I have always wondered why a cave was named this. 

Curious, I did a search and discovered this - there are some interesting ideas about the source of the name, that's for sure!

Horse Cave is a city in Hart County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,252 at the 2000 census.

The city is best known for the large natural cave opening located on the south side of Main Street, from which the town's name is derived. As for the historical reason for the odd name, various legends are told. One has it that Native Americans historically hid horses in the cave. A similar tale is that an early carriage may have lost its horse to an accident, when the horse fell into the cave opening. An even more far-fetched tale claims albino horses inhabited the cave and used a form of hoof morse code to communicate. Another, more likely, reason for the name is that the word horse was simply a 19th century adjective implying huge. The cave opening is large, and this is the most likely reason for the odd name. ("Hoss" is a Swedish word for "big in stature and big in spirit"; in the 19th Century, "Hoss", or "Horse", over time, became the Southern equivalent word, implying something that was huge or large.)

The cave itself has figured prominently in the history of the town. Around the World War I period, the world's only air-conditioned tennis courts were located in the entrance of the cave. Likewise, many of the early buildings alongside Main Street derived their air-conditioning from the cave. Inside the cave is a large, fast-flowing river, and the cave itself is also known as Hidden River Cave. This energy source provided the energy to drive a dynamo, and, for a while in the late 19th Century, Horse Cave was the only town outside of Louisville to have electric lights in Kentucky.

The point of the game is to find things that make me think of horses. This trailer made me think of saddles.

Jeff Toll,  a teacher (now a principal) that I worked with and who had Saddlebreds has always claimed that this is the best place to get boots. He goes to the Kentucky Derby annually and stops in at Boot Barn in southern Indiana every time.

 Another boot retailer in southern Indiana.

My favorite farm along the way near Columbus, Indiana. I can only imagine it at its heyday when the barns and pastures were busting with farmhands and livestock. Just look at that three story barn!

This last photo is not horsey at all.

This life sized statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is just north of Bowling Green, Kentucky and is my favorite landmark of all time. Our kids and their kids love it, too, and we often text each other when it comes into sight just to say we are looking at it yet again. I took this photo to send to our kids and included it in the blog post just because.

We arrived home Monday later afternoon and just had time to unpack, do the laundry, and get some sleep before hitting the road again. We had to be up early Tuesday morning so that I could go to Indianapolis and meet with a surgeon and his team. (We were there for six hours!)

I'll write more another time but I will be having pancreatic surgery in Indianapolis at the end of July. This BreyerFest/Tennessee trip was taken in part to take my mind off my medical woes. I'm not quite ready to talk about it, but I have a good surgical and medical team, so things are looking good.